How To |Get Organized in 2019

With it being a new year, many of us like to make a resolution (or several), and it’s a great time to start fresh, make changes, and start off the year with a bang! Sticking to those resolutions, however, is a whole other story. One of my resolutions is to get more organized.

Life can be so hectic these days, so hectic that everything feels a mess and like it’s all happening at once. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

Sometimes we all need to admit that we need help in organizing our lives. Staying organized makes life easier in the long run. Just think about how easy it’ll be to find stuff you need and avoid last minute hassles.

Here are my top tips that will hopefully help you (and me) organize your life at home, work and everything in between.

Write everything down and don’t rely on your memory. If, like myself, you are a bit of an airhead and have a tough time remembering things, put it in writing! Keeping your to-do lists and other information written somewhere allows you to look back at it anytime.

Practice putting things in place. Have a place for everything! Sort out your clothes, wrapping paper, crafts, cleaning materials – EVERYTHING! Doing this will take some time, but after a while you’ll see how easy it is to find what you need when everything in your place has a home.

Clean up regularly. Allocate certain hours of the day to de-clutter and clean up. It doesn’t have to be a large chunk of time, 15-30 minutes a day is enough.

Keep the hotspots clean. Every house and office has a hotspot for clutter. Usual suspects are the sink, dining table, your desk and bedside tables. Take note of these places and tidy them up daily.

Check the expiry dates of food and medicine you’ve stock. Expired food and medicines won’t just taste bad, they are also bad for your health. Dispose of them immediately to minimize clutter in your cupboards, and make room for new supplies.

Practice putting things away immediately. All your hard work creating a dedicated space for your stuff will be wasted if you don’t actually implement it. Things can pile up quickly. Keep the calm and organized ambiance of your home (and life) by putting things away immediately after you’re done using them.

Create a list of your passwords in a safe place. Passwords are very important in keeping your privacy and security. Unfortunately, using the same password for everything is bad, while having a lot of different passwords is secure but difficult to remember.

Unsubscribe from unread email newsletters, magazines and other subscriptions. If you subscribe to a number of newsletters, blogs and other online publications, but haven’t read a single one of them in 3 months, just unsubscribe. You probably won’t read any of their content.

Create an inventory and don’t over stock supplies. Make an inventory of home cleaning and toiletry supplies, so you don’t run out and don’t overstock either. You might think overstocking is good, but if you don’t have enough storage then all those extra supplies are just wasting precious space.

Create daily, weekly and monthly schedules for cleaning. It’s exhausting to have just one “cleaning day” where you clean everything all at once. Distribute tasks evenly!

Whichever of these takes you decide to do, remember that you can’t completely organize your life in one go. It’s a long, never-ending process so be patient. Decide to get organized now, then take baby steps until you see some order in your life. Soon enough, you will make a habit out of all of it.